Broadband Call Costs

Penrymmj

Hi everyone I'm kind of new around here so please be gentle!

I am currently with BT Broadband and have been for well over a year and so could easily change contract to get a better deal than the £26.99 that I currently pay.

My question regarding changing is how are the call costs covered if I go to an alternative provider? I have always assumed that they were just covered by the additional cost that I pay to BT yet if I look at the web sites of alternative providers, they make no mention of call charges. Am I missing something?

Penry

gary38uk

broadband and telephone are different things.
you can use a different provider for broadband, and keep bt for your telephone or chose another telephone provider, although you are limited in your choice of telephone provider, but they are many broadband providers to chose from.

i use metronet for broadband. (from £11.75)
bt for telephone which i only pay line rental (£10.50) and route all calls through 18866 which costs no more than £1.50 a month for calls.

see http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1095003038,99872,
for telephone info.

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/cgi-bin/viewnews.cgi?newsid1092034925,22928,
for broadband info.

Edinburghlass_2

Penry, first thing I would do is phone BT Broadband and tell them you are moving because of their outrageous charges as you can get the same service very much cheaper elsewhere. Hopefully they will then give you a better rate meantime to keep you and you can check out other providers at your leisure.

That is I am assuming that the £26.99 you are quoting is purely for your broadband, or does this include a sum for phone calls?

Penrymmj

edinburghlass - correct the £26.99 is for unlimited access, landline calls are extra. I will give them a call to see if they can do better. :rolleyes:

I think my real question is, is the price by all ISPs for broadband inclusive of costs for use of the telephone line (except for line rental) or do I have to pay an equivalent to call charges based upon usage? At the moment our broadband is on most of the time - it isn't used that amount, it's just on for convenience/lazyness. If I have to pay extra for the time spent with broadband connected, (even at 1p per minute) then, unless we get more regimented, then I can see the costs mounting up ((£18.month).

gary38uk - I signed up for 18866 last night. Let the good times roll

Penry

Edinburghlass_2

Penry, they CAN do better as most of BT broadband charges are reducing, but they depend on people being lazy (no reflection on you!) and just continuing to pay such a high price.

gary38uk

Penrymmj wrote:

edinburghlass - correct the £26.99 is for unlimited access, landline calls are extra. I will give them a call to see if they can do better. :rolleyes:

I think my real question is, is the price by all ISPs for broadband inclusive of costs for use of the telephone line (except for line rental) or do I have to pay an equivalent to call charges based upon usage? At the moment our broadband is on most of the time - it isn't used that amount, it's just on for convenience/lazyness. If I have to pay extra for the time spent with broadband connected, (even at 1p per minute) then, unless we get more regimented, then I can see the costs mounting up ((£18.month).

gary38uk - I signed up for 18866 last night. Let the good times roll

Penry

they are 3 types of broadband (broadly speaking)
1. unlimited, a fixed cost no matter how much you use it.
2. a limited amoumt of data allowed in a month.
3. pay as you go, such as metronet. you pay a minumium amount then it depends how much you download. can be £11.75 to £22.75 for unlimited.

broadband is not charged by the minute as its always on, it can be charged by the amount of data.

if you are a light user metronet are about the best ( i use metronet, been very good, but i might change soon as i do download alot and there are some others who are cheaper such as efh who charge £11.75 for unlimited.)

Edinburghlass_2

Penry, have a read at Martin's new thread for home phone calls with OneTel, here which will give you free UK calls evenings and w/ends with a £20 credit for signing up. Used in conjunction with 18866 you should have your call down to nothing for some time.

There is a thread here on efh broadband that Gary is talking about. Quite a lot of people seem to be happy with it.

Hope all this helps to reduce your monthly charges

carl310166

I am in the process of changing from BTYahoo broadband (£26.99) to BT broadband basic (£17.99) only because i wanted to keep my current email address.

It have had several different opinions about wheather i could retain my email if i moved to another ISP,and the conclusion was no,so that is the only reason for staying with BT.

I was a bit concerned about going over the 1gb monthly allowance,so i downloaded Netlimiter to monitor my usage,and in 3 weeks,i have used 0.37 of a gig.

They told me the switchover will happen on the 20th feb,so fingers crossed!

gary38uk

carl310166 wrote:

I am in the process of changing from BTYahoo broadband (£26.99) to BT broadband basic (£17.99) only because i wanted to keep my current email address.

It have had several different opinions about wheather i could retain my email if i moved to another ISP,and the conclusion was no,so that is the only reason for staying with BT.

I was a bit concerned about going over the 1gb monthly allowance,so i downloaded Netlimiter to monitor my usage,and in 3 weeks,i have used 0.37 of a gig.

They told me the switchover will happen on the 20th feb,so fingers crossed!

best is to use a free email account such as hotpop then you can keep that address. no need to change it if you change isp.
at your usage levels look a metronet its from £11.75 a month or ehf

Jonni2bad

carl310166 wrote:

I am in the process of changing from BTYahoo broadband (£26.99) to BT broadband basic (£17.99) only because i wanted to keep my current email address.

They told me the switchover will happen on the 20th feb,so fingers crossed!

Actually, BT will not get round to switching Basic customers until 24 March, and then it's just a matter of time till they get around to each individual. They told me that they "should " be finished by mid July.

Remember also that there is no guarantee that anyone CAN get a faster speed - it's all about your distance from the local exchange. Best to check if you can get an upgrade...

I also agree with gary38uk - get yourself an email address that you can carry with you, and then get the cheapest broadband provider you can!! I switched from BT Basic to EFH and now have uncapped 512k for only £11.75
Other ISPs are quite likely to follow BTs lead with increased speed, so fingers crossed

Big_Baz_2

Hi Folks,

Has anyone checked this out yet? http://www.homecall.co.uk/ukoffer/

Apparently £24.99 a month for 512K broadband and free local and national calls.Not sure if this is to landlines only as I only glanced over it a few minutes ago!

Let me know what you think.

BB